How Flo Mobility Is Bringing

While industries like warehouses and manufacturing have already adopted robotics for internal logistics, construction has lagged behind in automation.

Flo Mobility’s compact robots aim to fill this gap by handling one of the most repetitive tasks on site — material transportation. Equipped with cameras, RTK GPS, LIDAR, and onboard AI processing, the robots continuously analyse their surroundings to detect obstacles, calculate routes, and move materials safely across construction environments.

According to the company, its systems can deliver up to 6x efficiency in material movement, while reducing accidents and improving project timelines.

Flo Mobility’s journey wasn’t straightforward.

The founders initially incorporated the company in 2019, exploring ways to retrofit autonomous navigation into existing industrial machines. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and technical challenges made this approach difficult.

Instead of abandoning the idea, the team pivoted to building their own robots from scratch. During this phase, they experimented with several applications — from autonomous lawnmowers to warehouse robots and agricultural sprayers — before identifying construction as the most promising opportunity.

The sector’s reliance on manual labour and growing labour shortages made it an ideal market for automation.

One of the biggest barriers to adopting robotics in construction is the high upfront cost.

To solve this, Flo Mobility introduced a Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) model, where companies pay a subscription fee instead of purchasing the robots outright. The package includes machine rental, deployment, operations, and maintenance.

Today, about 80% of customers prefer the subscription model, allowing them to automate operations without heavy capital investment.

The startup has already deployed 55 robots across 24 construction projects, serving developers like L&T, Sobha, Godrej Properties, Embassy Group, and Total Environment.

Flo Mobility follows a full-stack approach, designing most of its robotics hardware and software internally.

Each robot operates through a four-step SPDA cycle — Sense, Perceive, Decide, Actuate — which runs multiple times every second. The onboard AI system processes data locally from sensors and cameras, eliminating the need for constant internet connectivity.

The company also builds key electronics components such as circuit boards and vehicle control units in-house while integrating open-source AI models trained on its own datasets.

India’s construction sector is expanding rapidly, driven by infrastructure investment and urban development. With the government allocating ₹12.2 lakh crore in capital expenditure, the industry is expected to grow significantly over the coming years.

The Autonomous Mobile Robot market in India, currently valued at around $314 million, is projected to cross $1.3 billion by 2033, creating major opportunities for robotics companies like Flo Mobility.

Flo Mobility currently operates with an annual revenue run rate of around ₹4 crore and plans to increase deployments fourfold and revenue fivefold by FY27.

The startup has already begun international expansion with deployments in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and it is preparing to enter the US market within the next 18 months.

Beyond material movers, Flo is also developing robots for wall finishing, tiling, and painting, aiming to automate more stages of construction.

For decades, construction has remained one of the least automated industries despite being a major contributor to economic growth.

Flo Mobility’s approach highlights how AI, robotics, and automation can transform even the most traditional sectors. If the company succeeds in overcoming adoption challenges, construction sites of the future could become safer, faster, and far more efficient.

And the humble wheelbarrow might finally meet its robotic replacement.